REvolucion SHaping MAchine

[louis]

Hey guys!

I wanted to introduce my new build, I have been working on it for a while and its been a great. Very happy with the results. I have to say that the project would have been impossible without Ross Rawd in Oz who build his own Machmate. Ross made my machine worked flawlessly with boardcad which is a key to make the project possible to keep the price down plus Boardcad is sick!! thanks JOnas!!

 I created this machine because I couldnt afford anything on the market other than converting a machmate or shopbot, even a old used DSD thats doesnt cut the rails is over 20gs… i wanted a real machine at affordable prices, being a small company myself, i have a hard time competing with all the cheap boards outhere from overseas… i decided to create a machine that is extremely inexpensive and perform as good as the other ones. i made the machine to easlily be able to use hotwiring for EPS blank cuttings and cut other tings like signs for trade show or other advertising like surfshop promo,  and its such a good/fun tool to have, once you have one you cant live without. After building the first one i loved doing it so much and it worked so well (after a year of working out the bugs…) that i want to offer it for people that are in the same boat as i was. this is the alternative for smaller companys.

the machine run on strong nema 34, 4 axis setup rack and pinion for simplicity and speed, hi speed spindle with inverter so you can change the rpm of the router if you want to tune to whatever you are cutting (like aluminum need to go slower etc…), centering laser, suction cup/vaccum pump and dust shoot. the machine is very strong, its much better and cheaper than shopbot or other options that are more expensive . its made with hi quality aluminum extrusion so its very strong and sturdy but light for moving.

The machine is designed to be very simple so you can fix it or maintanin it yourself with parts available everywhere and i did this because when I was working for UWL / T&C France as a shaper and machine operator. We had the DSD and the bearing seized in full busy season,  the machine was not designed to be taking apart easily, so it turned into just a nightmare, Luciano (the maker) was MIA, was impossible to find the parts or any help for that matter so we had to stop production for a week… that kind of things could have been easily fixed if the machine would have been made with componant you can find anywhere and if the design was made to be taken apart because any machine will have to be fixed or maintain at some point, it just the way it is with any machine for that matter.

In my carreer I worked with the APS3000, the DSD and the KMS, a friend of mine just bought the beautiful Precision, they all pretty cool machine but my favorite is the APS by far, just a work of art, i learned lots working with most of those machines and i left out what i didnt like. 

 

You can look at my site www.revolucionsurfboards.com , i shape, glass and sand all my boards , i do mostly tint and compsand,  i also build cars and motorcycle,i am currently working on 1954 vw bug oval windows and a 1953 vespa scooter that i brought back from France!

At the beginning of my carreer I built thousand of snowboards and a bunch snowboard press, building is in my blood.

i hope you like the machine.

 

Aloha,

 

Louis Robert

www.revolucionsurfboards.com

 

[dsd]

I was originally going to try to get a machine from Mike at Precision shapes. Really friendly knowledgable guy and I think he really builds a great machine. Even more so he wrote his own software ,he  as well as worked on a lot of versions of the machine and definately worked out a lot of the bugs that machinists run into. No offense Mike but Louis is a dear old friend of mine so I chose to support his endevours.We went ahead and ordered a Machine for Bali. I’m keen on the fact that Louis’s machine is built really sturdy,but a littlle leery about precisions machine due to the infrastructure not the mechanics. As every customer should know that when purchasing a machine (expecially for production ) it’s important to know with heavy use the framework can loosen up with vigarous rattling . This is what enticed us to go in the direction of Louis’s machine. also the price is very fair. Another feature I like  is tha fact that Louis is willing to come to Bali to set it up . Mike offers great support over internet or telephone . I’m  super new to a machine, so I chose hands on lessons in how to use and how to repair. I believe no matter what you pay it is a expensive piece of machinery no matter how you put it. It was a tough call to choose as I believe both machines are very good and easy to repair . So best of luck to you both and keep up the great work …Kudos!

[meanshapes]

Petey,

 

No worries… You really have to go with what you are comfortable with and believe will best benefit your business. I enjoyed our converstaions and wish you great success!

I will say that we really don’t have structural issues. We do fly out, have a tech customers just have to pay for it, in fact we just got back from setting up a 11000 ft SUP factory that also has our 18’ SUP machine and a 20’ long hotwire machine… I always tried to save people the extra expense of on-site setups as most the time its not needed and the customer could use the money for blanks or other needed setup expenses.

 

Mike

 

[louis]

YEah Petey!! 

cant wait for Bali, reconnect and catch some waves!! its been too long from the the good ol days at the addiction shop! what a summer that was… remember when we ran out of gas in the pass and you had to stay in teh van with all the fresh boards until i can hitch a ride to town and hour away… funny shit!

the new rails will be a good add on to the machine. self lub, better for a better production machine. the rails that i have work very good but bearings are expose and the bearing will have to get switch now and then, which is not the best for super busy shops.

 

Mike, 

i see u have a scanner, i was wondering if you use it to scan blanks?

some of my files from US blanks are quite different from the actual blanks so a quick was to scan would be great,  the only thing is that do you feel that scanning with the machine vs by hand is worth using machine time to cut boards?

Surfding,

ur opinion would be great!

 

L

[louis]

 

here is the new machine for Petey Meredith in Bali,  i updated many things and i a very happy with the new version. I had lots of fun building this one, cant wait for the next one. i though i would post pictures for the folks here that like cnc and robotics. 

Have fun reading and sorry about the pictures, took with my phone…

heres the updates:

-changed all rails to high quality self greasing rails instead of the skate bearings. the difference is unbeleivable, the skate bearings rails worked ok for a home machine but the dust pile up beteween the bearings and the rails and eventually would start humming, the motors had to work too hard. i would not use those rails again, well worth the money.

-build the  Z axis with a lot more lenght, 20’’ of travel so i can fit a hot wire bow to cut blanks. the frame of that axis has been out of a 3’’ x 3’’ aluminum beam,  really heavy duty.

-hot wire bow with super easy software solution to cut blanks up to 12’3’’ on this machine but could be built any size. clean and easy way to mount the bow on the machine.

-machine now include a dust attachment for the router.

-the machine controller has a better breakout board, super simple and really heavy duty. the wiring is clean and easy to switch a drive if something fails.

-the suction cup are now made of a softer material which is better for colder shop and super soft in hot weather, extreme grip.

-the mechanics use 1’’ aluminium plates, very heavy duty construction to run all day everyday.

-now has a “stop” button at every extremity of the machine,at the computer and on the control box 4 all together.

-kept the mechanic super simple, made things even easier for anyone to adjust, fix or modify the machine. The rails grease nipple are easy to access, the limit switch are easy to replace if they break, everything is well design. Again the goal of this machine was to make it cheaper than  anything on the market, now with the new rails the machine cost a bit more but was a must, after running the other rails for 6 months, i realised that they are fine for one board here and there but they are hard to adjust, difficult to run the machine at high speed and noisy, i wont use them again, they are not made for a high production  machine, specially on the long beam axis.

-used a big motor on the Zaxis, i used a smaller nema 34 before but now use a full size motor for full power.

 

here some pictures, the machine is not completely finished but will post more soon. should be done in the next day of 2, pretty stocked on this build and how it coming out.

enjoy and email me if you have any questions or need help with this post.

revolucionsurf@gmail.com

 

Louis

 

[huie]

huh’’   i am confused    are you selling surfboards  or shaping machines?

 

 

 

**  cheers huie
**

[louis]

I like to make more custom machine but i do build surfboards.

cheers huie!

[McDing]

Good job Louis.  I don't do enough volume to warrant owning one, but do have access to one if needed.

[surfding]

Louis:

Good Job!

I see you use 80/20.

Kind regards,

surfding

"Emotions are becoming commercialized. In the future, consumers will no longer

buy products but rather lifestyles and the stories, experiences, and emotions that products convey."

— Grant Leach, managing director of The Revo Group advertising agency, 2001.

Louis:

[louis]

8020 is great, i like it better than steel frame and also lot lighter. i mean big steel frame are great and heavy is not a bad thing but for me extrusion works better.

i can weld pretty good but the precision you get from extrusion is too good to pass. 

having a blast with this, 

next machine might going to Bali ! stocked.

thanks for the comment guys!

 

[Vpravada]

Picks of the cuts?  Cool to see a boardcad powered machine 

[louis]

will do.

[haavard]

Looking very good Louis, cool to see a machine running with BoardCAD. Been wanting to build a machine for years and have kind of started too, but went a slightly different path… Miki is a class act, very helpful. Wish I could spend more time tuning BoardCAD for machines too, but I do have a dayjob…

[louis]

thanks  Haavard for your hard work with boardcad, i understand you have a  day job but even if you did work on it full time i would have no complaint, its AWESOME!  Miki introduced me to a very cool guy Ross Bopf, he  worked very hard to make boardcad work with his mechmate. you can see video on you tube of his machine cutting with boardcad toolpath. hes been the best help for this because boardcad can be complicated to setup for the machine, at one point i though was gonna be impossible but when you do figure it out , its  working quite well.

i will post pictures of my cutting path as soon as they are exactly the way i want, i am still tweaking but very close. Making cnc machines is not easy .its all about precision, when i first started i had no ideas how difficult it was gonna to be, the tool needed to do it right and so on but once you live with it for long enough, it take over your head and you just start obsessing about different ideas day and night…  got a little nuts at some point, my brain was heating up quite a bit at night, hooked now. need some cnc rehab soon i think.

The APS is extremely efficient and having Miki as some sort of a mentor is just insane. i owe him tons, hes been building machine since 84, can you beleive that!! he has build so many different type of machines, pantograh, mills, played with hundreds of different cutting bits, i mean the APS is the product of years of engineering and talking to him, you find out  that hes just as passionate now that he was then if not more! yeah its been a good ride so far…

here is Ross Mechmate in all its glory running with boardcad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elM0MLfYpU4

[Jbux]

I think it really sucks that machines are taking over the handmade surfboard. I feel like machine made boards have no soul. I used to think that surfing was the most soul fulfilling sport and now it seems like the machines have taken that from it. It’s really sad that people who put love and soul into their boards can’t make a living now because of the Chinese cheap product. This machine is good in the way the small man can afford to feed his family. But bad because your contributeing to the sport of surfing looseing it’s soul. I will rather pay 100 dollars more for a surfboard with a soul.

[BarrySnyder]

These are my shaping machines.

Well, not really mine, but you get the idea.

Not everybody has given it up.

Barry Snyder

[ordinarycitizen]

@$1

These are my shaping machines.

Not everybody has given it up.

Barry Snyder

I have not and will not. I am proud of my tools and what I am able to do with them. The verdict is in… The schools have been divided

[img_assist|nid=1069758|title=My tools|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]

[louis]

Here is a cutting path by boardcad, bit used was a normal router bit so its a bit rougher than a good bit but the surfboard bit i have wasnt balanced properly,router was shaking like hell… waiting for another one but at 300$ / bit kinda ruin the fun, normal 14$ bit gave some pretty good result!

enjoy!

 

[louis]

nose

[louis]

rail